Book Review: The Insect Farm by Stuart Prebble

I have never really dabbled in crime or thriller fiction before. I started The Shining by Stephen King, and freaky though it was, for some reason or another, I never got to the end (nothing against Stephen King, if anything, it might just have been 1) the fact that it's a HUGE book and 2) it gave me nightmares). I certainly didn't have that problem with The Insect Farm. The plot is so brilliantly strange, that it kept me eagerly reading as fast as possible so I could find out what happens. 

Two brothers, Jonathan and Roger each have an obsession; for Jonathan it is his talented and beautiful girlfriend, Harriet. For Roger, it is the ecosystem of butterflies, beetles and creepy crawlies that he has collected which inhabit the shed at the bottom of the garden. Tragedy strikes in the family, leaving Jonathan to look after Roger on his own. However the circumstances of the tragedy are curious, and Jonathan is left to try and understand what really went on. The story tells the tale of how far we go to protect those we love. 

I was gripped from the very beginning of this novel. It starts: "If you have been lucky enough to be able to tell the truth for most of your life, you probably cannot imagine how exhausting it is to spend forever living a lie". I love this line as an opening sentence because right away it forces you to reflect and look inwards. In some ways I think the way it does this to start with, then allows us to almost understand how the strange and horrifying events which subsequently occur could actually really happen. 

For me, as the plot unfolded, I was more and more horrified at the uncovered truth, but it is like looking at something really foul but being too intrigued and mystified to look away. I had to carry on reading! 

Buy The Insect Farm by Stuart Prebble from Amazon 

Published by Alma Books

This was 5/5 for me!! Let me know what you think!

What I'm Wearing

I'm about to start work in London tomorrow, at the PR company I previously had an internship with. As I was sorting out what I was going to wear (trying to be organised and do it the night before as my brain barely functions when I get up at 6.30am!), I thought I'd share it.

Laying out my outfit on my bed is a thing I've done forever - does anyone else do this? I even tuck things in on the bed so I can see how it'll look. After I photographed this outfit I even put tights underneath the skirt to make sure they'd go! To clarify, the top is a mustard colour but I don't think it came out very well in the photos - I don't want to start another 'blue/black or gold/white dress' situation!

I haven't decided what's going to go over the top of this yet, because if the weather is anything like it has been today, I'll need about six layers!!

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Top - Warehouse, bought in the sale
Skirt - Monsoon
Necklace - Vintage

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Mother's Day

I hope you all had lovely Mother's Days!

I love to make Mum breakfast on her birthday or on Mother's day, as it's a simple way of doing something nice! I made poached eggs with salmon and hollandaise sauce on brioche toast this morning for Mum, of course with a cup of tea!

We then went for a lovely walk in the town of Buckden, where Mum grew up, not too far from us. We went to the church where she and Dad got married and had a little look round.

For lunch we took Mum out to East Restaurant in Peterborough, which is actually on a boat, which I find really cool! They do wonderful pan-Asian food; things like crispy noodles, Singapore curry, tempura vegetables, all so delicious!

 Mandarin Toast (above) 

After this delightful lunch, we came home to our dessert (after a rest!). I made orange and almond cake with passionfruit icing. This seemed to go down a treat, especially with a cup of tea (again, essential!). The recipe for the cake came from This Morning on ITV, the details of which can be found here. I definitely recommend this one, it was easy, and that's coming from me!!

I sprinkled some freeze-dried raspberries on the top, which wasn't in the recipe but I went a bit crazy down the cake aisle of Waitrose! I had no idea which petals they were on about in the video (linked), but I couldn't find them, so I went for some delicate little iced rosebuds.

The cake seemed to be generally appreciated by the whole family, evidenced by the above picture!

I hope you all had a lovely time and managed to celebrate in some way! Let me know in the comments or link your blog if you posted anything, as I'd love to read about it!


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Book Review: The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman by Denis Thériault

Wow, this book...! It is probably one of my favorite books to date!

The story follows Bilodo, a French postman who earnestly delivers post, has his lunch in a little café after his shift and then promptly comes home to his quiet little flat to some alone time, rarely breaking his routine. However he has a secret. The thing sustaining Bilodo is the time he spends steaming open and reading the letters between a long-distance couple, who write to each other in only beautiful Haiku poetry. For Bilodo these letters are a curious feast for his guilty eyes, but his obsession becomes his undoing.

The poetry of the writing combined with the intense and curious plot and the genius ending meant that this book stayed with me for a good while after I'd read  it. As well as being swept up in the goings on in Bilodo's life, I liked the fact that we learn, along with Bilodo, about elements of Japanese culture and tradition, of course, all written stunningly. This book was truly a pleasure read from cover to cover, and I would recommend it to anyone (in fact, my Mum has it now, hence why I have not managed to take my own photo!).

The last thing to say is that this has been wonderfully translated by Liedwy Hawke, especially the Haikus!

♥♥♥♥♥ (5/5!)




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